Litfin's preview: Opening day at Aqueduct

Wednesday, Oct. 29, preview

There’s a chill in the air, and daylight-saving time is coming to an end, which, of course, means this is the time of year racing fans have anticipated for months. Yes, trick or treat, it’s time for Aqueduct, where racing on the New York Racing Association circuit will be conducted for the next six months.

New York’s last hurrah in terms of big-race days comes Saturday, Nov. 29, when the Cigar Mile heads a card that also includes the Remsen, Demoiselle and Comely. The $500,000 Cigar Mile, the last Grade 1 race of the year on the circuit, has bonus stipulations whereby previous Grade 1 winners run for a winner’s share of $750,000, and Breeders’ Cup winners run for the equivalent share of $1 million.

All told, 24 stakes, from the Nov. 1 Discovery through New Year’s Eve, 11 of them graded, are worth more than $4 million, including three new $100,000 races for New York-breds: the Notebook and Key Cents at six furlongs on Nov. 16 and the Bay Ridge at 1 1/16 miles on Dec. 31.

PLAYING FAVORITES

Above and beyond general admonitions about how to handle the change in venue, one fact emerges: Favorites win a whole lot of races at Aqueduct.

Favorites at the last five fall meetings:
2009: 122 for 343 (36 percent)
2010: 127 for 315 (40 percent)
2011: 64 for 162 (40 percent)
2012: 84 for 234 (36 percent)
2013: 89 for 234 (38 percent)

Favorites at the last five winter meetings:
2009-10: 214 for 622 (34 percent)
2010-11: 275 for 649 (42 percent)
2011-12: 276 for 675 (41 percent)
2012-13: 194 for 524 (37 percent)
2013-14: 214 for 573 (37 percent)

There’s just no getting around having to swallow a lot of chalk dust. The silver lining for bettors on a budget is that multirace exotics are frequently manageable enough, and there can still be worthwhile payouts when DRF TicketMaker’s mixing and matching has gone according to plan.

POST TIME 1 P.M. THROUGH SATURDAY

First post is 1 p.m. for the first four racing days before the clocks turn back and post time shifts to 12:20 p.m. on Sunday. The exceptions are an 11:25 a.m. start Thanksgiving Day and noon starts on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 28-29.

REVISED BETTING MENU WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY

With eight-race cards kicking off the meet Wednesday and Thursday, the betting menu for multirace exotics is tweaked slightly. The pick six starts with race 3 at 2 p.m. The late pick four starts with race 5 at 3 p.m.

NEW CLAIMING RULE IN EFFECT

Beginning Wednesday, horses who have been away from the races for 180 days or more can be protected from a claim in their first start back, provided it is at the same level or higher than their most recent race. The new rule only applies to the return race.